Wishing My Readers Happy Holidays & A Successful New Year!

OAG Lit Up! Outdoor Art Unveiling

The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) is taking art outside for one night! Celebrate two new commissioned works in the front courtyard of the soon to be opened OAG Expansion at 50 Mackenzie King Bridge.

According to the OAG web site, the event will include the spectacular projection artwork Of Buffalo, Bears, and Indian Scouts on the facade of the new OAG cube by Bear Witness and an accompanying DJ set by the JUNO winner. We will also be celebrating the large-scale, interactive light installation Ascension by The Latest Artists which will soon be mounted on the Mackenzie King Bridge wall.


Facts:

Friday, December 15, 2017
4:00 PM 7:00 PM
50 Mackenzie King Bridge Ottawa
Free admission
https://www.ottawaartgallery.ca/whatson/2017/12/15/oag-lit-up-art-unveiling-celebration

Opening Night @ Karsh-Masson Gallery

Currently on view at Karsh-Masson Gallery: "Continuum: Karsh Award artists welcome a new generation".

Seven past Karsh Award laureates have selected seven emerging artists who work within the photographic medium: Joi T. Arcand, AM Dumouchel, Leslie Hossack, Olivia Johnston, Julia Martin, Meryl McMaster and Ruth Steinberg.

Opening night at Karsh-Masson Gallery, September 14, was busy.

From Leslie Hossack's series H-Hour, Normandy 1944 on view at Continuum

From Olivia Johnston's Madonnas series on view at Continuum

Some works from the Avian Wanderer series by Meryl McMaster at Continuum

Facts:

Continuum: Karsh Award artists welcome a new generation
Karsh-Masson Gallery (at Ottawa City Hall)

September 14 to October 22, 2017

Link: https://ottawa.ca/en/residents/arts-heritage-and-culture/galleries-and-exhibition-spaces/karsh-masson-gallery/past-exhibitions-2017

Art on the Grass in Carp

Art on the Grass In Carp on Aug. 19, 2017

It was busy at the West Carleton Arts Society's outdoor art event... and no, it did NOT rain!

Link to West Carleton Arts Society: www.westcarletonartssociety.ca

Wintergatan - Marble Machine

This incredibly complex Marble Machine uses 2000 marbles to create music. Absolutely fascinating!

Check out the mesmerizing YouTube video of the Mable Machine by the Swedish folktronica band Wintergatan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUU8joBb1Q&feature=youtu.be

Fieldwork turns 10

Fieldwork is celebrating its 10th anniversary with Soundwork - an exhibition of six installations that incorporate sound. Explore art in a very unique way: along a field and forest trails!

INSTALLATIONS BY:

Mixed Metaphors (Jesse Stewart & Matt Edwards)

Hilary Martin & Ranjit Bhatnagar

Annette Hegel & Deborah Margo

Matt Rogalsky & Laura Cameron

Doug Van Nort

Nicola Oddy

Some of the installations are interactive. The outdoor project continues through November, is open for the public and free of charge.

Fieldwork is 1.25 hours west of Ottawa. More details and directions can be found at www.fieldworkproject.com and/or on their Facebook page facebook.com/fieldworkproject.


Facts:
http://www.fieldworkproject.com/

Mélange @ Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts, Ottawa

 
Some shots from the exciting opening night of Mélange, a celebratory exhibition of work by The Rectory Art House artists. The show at Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts is curated by Dale Smith.

From their invitation: Mélange refers both to the storied 150 year history of the mixed inhabitants of Lowertown and to the divergent work of the seven artists who create from the Rectory Art House on Murray Street in present day Lowertown: Tiffany April, Karen Bailey, Gwen Frankton, Sharon Lafferty, Jeannie Polisuk, Karen Rasmussen and Lori Victor.

Built in 1890, Saint Brigid's played a vital role in Lowertown as the Catholic church serving the Irish population. Now deconsecrated and transformed into an arts centre, Saint Brigid's continues to contribute to the rich heritage of both Lowertown and the Ottawa area. Mélange adds to this cultural tradition with an exhibition of painting, installation and video.

Loved the works and the location!

Facts:
Mélange, a celebratory exhibition of work by The Rectory Art House artists
May 2-6, 2017 @ Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts, Ottawa
Vernissage: Tuesday 2 May, 5pm-9pm
Hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 11am-8pm, Saturday 10am – 1pm
http://saintbrigidscentre.com/the-rectory-art-house/

Paul Seesequasis takes over @CUArtGallery Instagram

The writer and cultural activist Paul Seesequasis is taking over the CUAG Instagram account today until May 6th, in conjunction with the current exhibition The Other NFB. His posts will respond to images shot in the North by photographers working for the NFB's Still Photography Division.

Follow @CUArtGallery from Tuesday 2 May through Saturday 6 May using the hashtag #CUAGTakeover.

Paul Seesequasis is a writer, editor, cultural activist and journalist. He was a founding editor of the award-winning Aboriginal Voices magazine and the recipient of a MacLean-Hunter journalist award. His short stories and features have been published in Canada and abroad. His novel Tobacco Wars was published by Quattro Books in 2010.

H'Art of Ottawa

I love the Community Exhibition Spaces of the City of Ottawa – art in rather unexpected places. Like the one at the Richcraft Recreation Complex in Kanata. Go swimming, do a Zumba class, or exercise at the gym, and admire contemporary local art while you're there.

The exhibition on view is called “H'Art: A selection of works from the studio collection”. H’Art of Ottawa is an innovative and inclusive visual arts studio that supports artists with intellectual disabilities. 

 

“H’Art of Ottawa is a unique and innovative art studio where self-expression and a sense of place are encouraged and celebrated for people with developmental disabilities. Through the common language of art and self-expression, the artists of H’Art contribute to the community and the cultural life of Ottawa.” (From H'Art's web site)

Strong, expressive, colourful paintings!

Facts:
H'Art of Ottawa, Upstream Studio
Exhibition at Richcraft Recreation Complex
4101 Innovation Drive, Kanata
http://www.hartofottawa.ca/upstream-studio-gallery/

Wolfgang Tillmans' Band Project "Fragile": Visual Album Released

German artist Wolfgang Tillmans has just released a visual album of his band project Fragile: “That’s Desire / Here We Are EP”! Reminds me a lot of Tillmans' recent abstract work. Love it!

Artist Statement: “Directed and photographed by myself, the 27 minutes film features performances by Hari Nef, Karis Wilde, Ash B., Matthew Salinas, Bashir Daviid Naim, Rachel Guest, Christopher Olszewski and myself as well as band members Juan Pablo Echeverri, Jay Pluck, Kyle Combs, Tom Roach and Daniel Pearce.“

“Participants danced and improvised in Los Angeles and New York to the music, without previously knowing it. Whilst editing the footage with Michael Amstad in Berlin, it became clear, that what was planned to be cut into six individual videos, should not be separated, but should remain as a consecutive sequence of six different moods.”

Explaining the motivations behind the visual album Wolfgang Tillmans says: 

"Four songs have been written and recorded this summer in Fire Island and New York, in a time now marked as 'post Brexit / pre Trump'. New Jersey’s Ash B.’s performance and improvised rap on That’s Desire blew us away. The song was recorded in 30 minutes. Two vocal takes by myself, one by Ash B. That was it. Warm Star was written and recorded in Porto in January this year. Principally a love song with political undertones, some lines of the lyrics later made it onto my pro EU / anti Brexit campaign posters.” (From the Youtube website).

Check it out on the link below.

Facts:

Fragile: Visual Album "That’s Desire / Here We Are EP"

Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=--14I6ajk5c

Wolfgang Tillman's Catalogue Raisonnee: "If One Thing Matters, Everything Matters" (2003). As you can see, I've studied it a lot.

Still on View: The Intimate World of Josef Sudek

Happy New Year!

My first exhibition tip in 2017: While attending the opening of the Canadian Photography Institute (http://visualencounter.blogspot.ca/2016/10/launch-of-canadian-photography.html), I had a chance to see the wonderful Josef Sudek exhibition. It's still on view until end of February, and the thoughtful works by “Prague's Atget” are worthwhile a visit. I love the views from his studio in the change of seasons, and over the years... how the glass refracts the light. (Window of My Studio, c. 1940–54).

From the NGC website:

Czech photographer Josef Sudek (1896–1976) produced some of the twentieth century’s most haunting images taken through the window of his studio, as well as of gardens, parks and streets of his beloved city, Prague. Working solely with bulky large-format cameras, despite losing an arm in the First World War, Sudek was a master of pigment and silver print processes. He pushed photography beyond its preoccupations with painterly and modernist styles to explore his own particular brand of romanticism. This Canadian Photography Institute exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada is the first major show to examine the work and life of Sudek and his intimate circle of artist friends during the decades before and after the Second World War.

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Facts: 
The Intimate World of Josef Sudek
28 Oct 2016 - 26 Feb 2017
Canadian Photography Institute (located at the National Gallery of Canada)
Link: http://www.gallery.ca/sudek/en/